Intercultural Communication in the ArtsAmara Salmon

For this project, I went to the Harn Museum here on campus. I decided to focus specifically on the Korean display in the Asian wing of the museum. Korean culture is very different from my own, I do not feel that their leadership style was depicted directly through the art but I was able to get a general idea of what it could be. Overall, I think leadership is viewed uniformly in Korea, while in American Culture it varies depending on several factors.

In class we watched the documentary Race: Power of an Illusion. I found it very interesting how someone thought to take a CAT scan and an X- Ray of a statue. At first I thought a person was inside the Buddha, and that it was being used to give this person an identity, much like the measurements in the documentary. Then I read the description and the scan was used to make sure that nothing was on the inside of the statue and to tell what it possibly could be made of.

The picture on my left above shows a village in Korea, the story behind this piece ties well within our class. It is a part of the Van Fleet collection, which was inspired by General Van Fleet who served as a U.S. Army officer in both World Wars and the Korean War. General Van Fleet is said to have been the driving force behind the relations between the U.S. and Korea. This would not have been accomplished without a "mutual understanding and appreciation of their respective cultures, aims, ideals, arts, sciences and industries".

Overall, my visit to the harn was enlightening and much needed. This class helped me appreciate the art more than I believe I would have previously. I actually took my time to observe the art and read the descriptions to understand the historical context behind each piece. From this experience I learned more about Buddhism, and how they have various Buddha statues. Each statue is typically in a different position, and they all have different meanings. I also thought it was very interesting how in western culture we view the swastika as a symbol of hate, however, in Buddhism this symbol represents eternity and is commonly still used today in many East Asian countries.